Recently, I have just received the book Letter Fountain: The anatomy of type that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Actually, I came across the Dutch edition several years ago, but unfortunately I didn't understand any Dutch and was nearly about to give up buying it. However, I ordered one copy as soon as I knew that the English edition was released.

This book say “Everything you could ever want to know about printing letters and numbers.”, the contents is enriched by the history of the Latin alphabets, the handwriting and the typefaces, the characteristics, the abstracts and the specimens of 36 classic typefaces, the Index of Type Companies with brief explanations and the timeline of Type Publishers, etc... This is the book that you ‘typophile’ should keep always by your side.

表紙 Cover

目次 Contents

第1部目次 The first part contents

欧文書体の歴史から始まって、ローマ時代からの書記について、活字書体時代に書体のあれこれなど。

The history of the Latin alphabets, the handwriting and the typefaces

ラテン文字成立までの歴史 The history of the alphabets

活字書体の歴史 The history of the typefaces

各文字の形の詳細な分析 The examining the forms of the letters

第2部目次 The second part contents

代表的な36書体の特徴や歴史、テキスト組みのサンプルやその書体の代替書体まで掲載。

The characteristics, the abstracts, the specimens, the alternatives of 36 classic typefaces